SECONDARY SCHOOLS PEER COUNSELING TRAINING

ST. TERESA'S OPANGA MIXED SECONDARY SCHOOL

 

OPANGA SCHOOL GATE

This is the blog post of the peer counseling training held in St. Teresa’s Opanga Mixed Secondary School, which was funded by Anglican Development Services (ADS), and facilitated by the Agape Counseling and Training Services (Acts). This training started on 4^th to 6^th October 2013.

St. Teresa’s Opanga Mixed Secondary School is located in Ramba Location, Kakangutu West Sub-Location, Kabondo Region, and Ramba Zone in Homabay County which is one of the 47 counties in  Kenya

It was begun in 1996 by the community members as an initiative to promote education in that area. The first candidate class sat KCSE in 1997 but it was registered in 1998. .

The school had a student population of 250 with teaching staff of 13 teachers, four employed by the school Board of governors (B.O.G) and nine employed by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC).

A STUDENT DOING A PRESENTATION

Amid the above milestones, the school faced various challenges that emanated from within and out of the school. Firstly, the community around the school was relatively poor; hence, fee payment could not be steady. This affected the desired developments the school wished to have. The poverty also made the girls to be more vulnerable to the luring non school going youths from the neighboring villages. This was especially to the ‘boda boda’ (motor bike) riders who took advantage of the girls’ orphan hood and caused many girls to drop out of school. Generally, the number of orphans in the school was high and this psychologically affected the students, who were in most cases parented by aged guardians. Worth mentioning though, was the relatively high HIV/AIDS prevalence in the community.  The school administration alluded to the fact that the school was mixed, and could not rule out the problem of boy- girl relationships among the students. However, this was under control.  The school was also concerned with the rising number of bars in the area, which could entice the students. 

A STUDENT ANSWERING QUESTIONS

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• The participants were made aware of their counseling potentials
• The participants acquired counseling skills
• The participants were informed of the counseling process
• The participants were made aware of their sexuality in relation to their reproductive health as well as HIV/AIDS counseling and would make informed decisions. 

OWIRO SECONDARY SCHOOL

Peer counseling report done at Owiro Secondary School from 4^th – 5^th October 2013. The training was sponsored by Anglican Development Services Nyanza (ADS) and facilitated by Agape Counseling and Training Services (ACTS).

Owiro Secondary School has been in existence from1999 to date that is 14 years. The School is located in Ramba Kabondo Location, West Kodimo Sub-location. The population of the School is 120 students, nine Teachers of which six are employed by TSE and three are employed by School’s Board of Governors.

Economic activities around the School are peasant farming and small scale businesses. They grow mostly potatoes, millet and cassava; maize does not do very well and only a few people plant.

Social activities around the School are foot ball clubs and religious activities. The main religion in the area is Christianity, and the denomination being Catholic mostly though the others like Seventh Day Adventist, Anglican and Pentecost Churches are also within.

There are some challenges that affect the growth of the school such as high level of poverty which impacts on the academics and even the relationship of the School administration and the community; this comes about whenever the students cannot pay school fees and are sent home, the community feels that the Administration is not being fair.

The high rate of pregnancies for girl child is also being brought about by poverty. Since the girls can not a ford basics, they are being lured by the’ boda boda’ people are this results in their getting pregnant and consequently dropping out of school.

Superstition and witchcraft are some of the factors that lower the growth of the school.

EMERGING ISSUES:

During the training, it emerged that superstition and witch craft which is commonly practiced around the School, affects the growth of the school and also affects the academic performance. There were issues such as students were always fearful to be rated index No. one for fear of being killed. There had been a case of a student who was number in assessment test for KSCE  enrolment and this particular student had to plead with the Principal not to be rated Index No. one for fear of being killed.

KILUSI SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Agape Counseling & Training Services (ACTS) conducted Peer Education Training at Kilusi Mixed Secondary School, which was organized by Anglican Development Services (ADS).Kilusi Secondary School is a mixed day situated at kadongo sub-lacation, oyugis district, Homa-bay County in Nyanza province. The facilitators arrived at the training venue at 9.05am, with all the participants awaiting us full of joy. We were warmly welcomed by the Deputy Principal who was also in charge of guidance and counseling.    This report contains all the process that participants were taken through during the peer counseling training starting from day one to the last day.